In many commercial work spaces the surfaces of the floors and walls are finished to provide a finish which can be easily and effectively cleaned. Most commonly, this surface is covered with ceramic tile, quarry tile or paneling which is commonly cleaned with high-pressure water and detergents. Ceramic tile is most often used along the walls and floors. The area along the base of the wall often receives the impact of skids and dollies which would otherwise crack the ceramic tile. A high-impact trim piece is added to replace the surface tile in this area.
There is a problem, however, because the joints between the baseboard and the adjoining wall and floor tiles are often not sufficiently water-tight against the wash-water especially if high-pressure washing is used. Leakage behind the baseboard often results in water damage to the tile and supporting drywall which then must be replaced. Also, water may leak through the wall into other areas of the building. The use of epoxy covered baseboard materials to overlap the joint between the wall tile and the floor at the base of the wall is known. However, the use of coating baseboard materials, such as, wood with epoxy in order to achieve water-tight surface is both expensive and time-consuming. It is further known to have thermo-plastic baseboards extruded into different decorative configurations. However, by design and in use, these plastic materials are applied as the final step over the surface tile. This invariably exposes a seam along the top edge of the baseboard trim which is susceptible to leaking wash-water to the area behind the baseboard. In a further attempt to mitigate this problem, the top edge of overlaid baseboard trim pieces is often angled downward along the top edge in order to facilitate the run-off of wash-water. However, because the trim piece is laid over the wall tile, water washing down the wall directly impacts the joint along the top of the baseboard, and leakage behind the baseboard still occurs. It is also known to use ceramic wall tile with a cove along the bottom edge where it meets the floor, however, the grout joint at base of the wall floor often washes out and water still gets behind the bottom coarse of tile. Finally, it is also known to overlay a single row of coved quarry tile as a base trim which sits directly on the floor tile, however, this still leaves a horizontal joint along the top edge of the quarry tile which is susceptible to water damage from above.
Despite all the efforts explained above, there is no known prior art baseboard trim system which provides and adequately meets the need for a long-lasting water-tight wall/floor joint. Extruded baseboard systems, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,514 issued to Wolfe on May 11, 1999 disclose such a baseboard which is affixed directly to the wall sub-structure. However, in this instance, such as in all prior art systems, there is still an exposed seam along the top edge of the baseboard which is susceptible to wash-water leakage.
There is therefore a need in the art for an inexpensive and effective high-impact type baseboard which may be applied and used in a way which provides a water-tight seal against high-pressure wash-water coming from all directions, especially from above.